[Bug]: Issue deploying at VcfInstaller step when going through vCenter single host config

[eplustony]

Holorouter Version

9.1

VCF Version

VCF 9.1

Target Type

vCenter Cluster

Describe the bug

Up until now I've been deploying straight to a standalone ESX host, however I've had to switch to going through a vcenter host in order to license it. Right now it's a single host under a cluster with DRS enabled, connected to vcenter using DNS name. It uses a local account on the vcenter to access it find and it deploys the 4 nested esx hosts without issue, then fails when attempting to deploy the VcfInstaller. I've done a bunch of troubleshooting and I've found several similar issues but nothing seems to match exactly what I'm seeing. It appears to be related to an ovftool call that's failing, and if I'm understanding the flow correctly it actually tries to connect right to the ESX host, even when using the "going through vcenter" approach, and possibly related to that?

My vcenter login does NOT match the ESX host login, and it doesn't ask me for an ESX login anywhere so was curious how it's connecting to the ESX host in that case and if that might be related also.

PS /root> New-HoloDeckInstance -Version 9.1.0.0 -InstanceID jkjd -DepotType Offline -VSANMode OSA -Site a -ManagementOnly
11-09-2026 00:48:00  HoloDeck[1398]: [INFO] Log level set to: INFO
11-09-2026 00:48:00  Auth[1398]: [INFO] Testing connectivity to Target Host
11-09-2026 00:48:01  Auth[1398]: [SUCCESS] cic01-m01-vc01.vcf.<domainRedacted>.com is successfully connected!
11-09-2026 00:48:01  Auth[1398]: [INFO] Target host is a vCenter
11-09-2026 00:48:01  SetHoloDeckConfig[1398]: [INFO] Updating the Global Config, ConfigKey: TargetHostApiType, ConfigValue: VirtualCenter
11-09-2026 00:48:01  HoloDeck[1398]: [INFO] The runtime Environment is Unix, Setting up the HoloDeck Root Folder to /holodeck-runtime
11-09-2026 00:48:01  SetHoloDeckConfig[1398]: [INFO] Updating the Global Config, ConfigKey: rootFolderPath, ConfigValue: /holodeck-runtime
11-09-2026 00:48:01  HoloDeck[1398]: [INFO] Welcome to HoloDeck 9.0!
11-09-2026 00:48:01  HoloDeck[1398]: [INFO] Retrying execution, using the same output.txt file
11-09-2026 00:48:01  SetHoloDeckConfig[1398]: [INFO] Updating the Global Config, ConfigKey: InstanceID, ConfigValue: jkjd
11-09-2026 00:48:01  LoadHolodeckInstance[1398]: [SUCCESS] HoloDeck Instance loaded: jkjd
11-09-2026 00:48:01  HoloDeck[1398]: [INFO] Validating the ds-nvme-local01/HoloDeckISO Path
11-09-2026 00:48:05  HoloDeck[1398]: [SUCCESS] HoloDeckISO Folder on ds-nvme-local01 exists
11-09-2026 00:48:10  SetHoloDeckConfig[1398]: [INFO] Updating the Global Config, ConfigKey: vSANMode, ConfigValue: OSA
11-09-2026 00:48:10  HoloDeck[1398]: [INFO] Creating Single Site HoloDeck Instance with VCF Management Domain Only with default configurations!
11-09-2026 00:48:10  HoloSite[1398]: [INFO] Deploying Management Domain
11-09-2026 00:48:10  HoloSite[1398]: [INFO] Deploying VCF Installer
11-09-2026 00:48:10  VCFInstaller[1398]: [INFO] Validating user input for VCF Installer
11-09-2026 00:48:10  VCFInstaller[1398]: [INFO] User input validation successful
11-09-2026 00:48:10  VCFInstaller[1398]: [INFO] Deploying VCF Installer
Error: Unexpected option: vi://holodeck-automation%40vsphere.local:<passwordRedacted>@cic01-m01-vc01.vcf.<domainRedacted>.com/cic01-holodeck/host/cic01-hd01-cluster01
Completed with errors
11-09-2026 00:48:11  VCFInstaller[1398]: [ERROR] VCF Installer deployment failed
11-09-2026 00:48:11  HoloSite[1398]: [ERROR] HoloDeck deployment failed. Complete error diagnostics saved to: /holodeck-runtime/logs/holodeck-runtime-errors-site-a_11Sep2026_12_12.log
Exception: Failed to deploy HoloDeck

Reproduction steps

   1  New-HoloDeckConfig -Description CIC-VCF-LAB -TargetHost cic01-m01-vc01.vcf.<domainRedacted>.com -username holodeck-automation@vsphere.local -Password <passwordRedacted>
   2  New-HoloDeckInstance -Version 9.1.0.0 -InstanceID XXXX -DepotType Offline -VSANMode OSA -Site a -ManagementOnly

Expected behavior

Continues to deploy VCF Installer OVA to the ESX host after deploying the Nested ESX hosts successfully.

Relevant logs

=== ERROR ENTRY [2] ===
Timestamp: 11-09-2026 00:33:06
Source Function: HoloSite
Error Message: Exiting Function New-HoloSite
Exception Type: System.Management.Automation.RuntimeException
Script: /root/.local/share/powershell/Modules/HoloDeck/Modules/HoloSite.psm1
Line Number: 346
Position: Line 346, Char 17

Stack Trace:
at New-HoloSite<Process>, /root/.local/share/powershell/Modules/HoloDeck/Modules/HoloSite.psm1: line 346
at New-HoloDeckInstance<Process>, /root/.local/share/powershell/Modules/HoloDeck/HoloDeck.psm1: line 1125
at <ScriptBlock>, <No file>: line 1
Target Object: Exiting Function New-HoloSite
Category: OperationStopped
Reason: RuntimeException

Full Error Record:
Exception: Exiting Function New-HoloSite



========================

Additional context

[dhruv-tyagi-broadcom]

Can you run the following commands and share the output so we can see what the exact issue is?

With the same config you used to deploy VCF instance loaded (you can load it using Import-HoloDeckConfig command), run

$config.'holodeck-sddc'.'Site-a'.'vcf-installer' | ConvertTo-Json

Also run the following:

$site = "a"
$siteCode = "Site-$site"
$version = $config.'holodeck-sddc'.$siteCode.version
$target_host = $config.Target
$vcf_installer_config = $config.'holodeck-sddc'.$siteCode.'vcf-installer'
$vcf_installer_vmName = (Get-HoloDeckAppNetwork -Hostname "vcfInstaller-$site" -Site $site).Hostname 
$instanceID = $config.InstanceID 
$ova_path = $vcf_installer_config.ovaPath
$username = $target_host.username
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Web
$username_encoded = [Uri]::EscapeDataString($username)
$password = $target_host.password
$password_encoded = [Uri]::EscapeDataString($password)
$hostname = $target_host.hostname
$datastore = $target_host."datastore-$site"


$vcf_installer_hostname = $vcf_installer_config.hostname
if( $config.InstanceID -ne "Default")
{
    $vcf_installer_vmname = $instanceId +"-"+$vcf_installer_vmName
}else{
    $vcf_installer_vmname = $vcf_installer_vmName
}

$vcf_installer_network = $vcf_installer_config.network1
$vcf_installer_root_password = $vcf_installer_config.rootPassword
$vcf_installer_local_password = $vcf_installer_config.localUserPassword
$vcf_installer_ntp = $vcf_installer_config.ntp
$vcf_installer_ip0 = $vcf_installer_config.ip0
$vcf_installer_netmask0 = $vcf_installer_config.netmask0
$vcf_installer_gateway = $vcf_installer_config.gateway
$vcf_installer_domain = $vcf_installer_config.domain
$vcf_installer_searchpath = $vcf_installer_config.searchpath
$vcf_installer_DNS = $vcf_installer_config.dns

$dc = $target_host.datacenter
$cls = $target_host.cluster

$cluster = Get-Cluster -Name $cls
# $clusterPath = $cls.ExtensionData.MoRef.Value

# Get the inventory path
$clusterView = Get-View -Id $cluster.Id
$parent = Get-View -Id $clusterView.Parent
$path = @()

# Walk up the hierarchy to build the path
while ($parent.Name -ne "host") {
    $path += [Uri]::EscapeDataString($parent.Name)
    if ($parent.Parent) {
        $parent = Get-View -Id $parent.Parent
    } else {
        break
    }
}

# Reverse to get correct order
[array]::Reverse($path)
if($path){
    $fullPath = ($path -join "/") + "/" + [Uri]::EscapeDataString($cluster.Name)
}else{
    $fullPath = [Uri]::EscapeDataString($cluster.Name)
}

if($target_host.resourcePool){
    $fullPath = $fullPath + "/Resources/" + [Uri]::EscapeDataString($target_host.resourcePool.Trim('/'))
}

$encodedDc = [Uri]::EscapeDataString($dc)

$ovftoolArgs = @(
    "--noSSLVerify",
    "--name=$vcf_installer_vmname",
    "--X:injectOvfEnv",
    "--datastore=$datastore",
    "--diskMode=Thin",
    "--network=$vcf_installer_network",
    "--acceptAllEulas"
)
if ($target_host.vmFolder) {
    $cleanVmFolder = $target_host.vmFolder.Trim('/')
    Write-Log -Message "Deploying VCF Installer into VM folder '$cleanVmFolder'"
    $ovftoolArgs += "--vmFolder=$cleanVmFolder"
}
$ovftoolArgs += @(
    "--prop:ROOT_PASSWORD=$vcf_installer_root_password",
    "--prop:LOCAL_USER_PASSWORD=$vcf_installer_local_password",
    "--prop:vami.hostname=$vcf_installer_hostname",
    "--prop:guestinfo.ntp=$vcf_installer_ntp",
    "--prop:vami.ip0.SDDC-Manager=$vcf_installer_ip0",
    "--prop:vami.netmask0.SDDC-Manager=$vcf_installer_netmask0",
    "--prop:vami.gateway.SDDC-Manager=$vcf_installer_gateway",
    "--prop:vami.domain.SDDC-Manager=$vcf_installer_domain",
    "--prop:vami.searchpath.SDDC-Manager=$vcf_installer_searchpath",
    "--prop:vami.DNS.SDDC-Manager=$vcf_installer_DNS",
    "--powerOn",
    $ova_path,
    "vi://${username_encoded}:${password_encoded}@${hostname}/${encodedDc}/host/${fullPath}"
)
& ovftool @ovftoolArgs

[xzitony]

Ahh yes, that helped! It had to do with the OVAPath, it had pulled in two OVAs from some of the other edits I made to try the workaround for installing the latest versions. Editing the HoloDeck config to just have a single OVAPath fixed it for me.

Thanks!